Looking Out for Lexy (7 page)

             
Tossing her hair, shimmering in the sunlight, Lexy smiled.  “So, do you come her often?”

             
“Yeah.  I like it a lot.  It gives me time to think and be alone. Away from all those fake people, ya know, at school.”  Jack shielded his eyes, trying not to be obvious as he eyed her up and down.  He didn’t want to scare her away.

             
“Oh, does that include me too?” 

             
“No, no.  I didn’t mean you, Lexy.  You’re different from the rest of them...somehow.  I don’t know what it is, I just know.”

             
“Thanks for that, I guess.  Some of my friends are really nice though.  I think if you gave them a chance you would see that not everyone is that bad.”  Lexy burrowed her toe in the sand. “I’m glad you thought enough of me to bring me here...to your place.  It is beautiful.  What do you do when you’re out here alone?”

             
“Awe, sometimes I stay out all day and into the night.  You can really see the stars out here away from the city.  It’s peaceful just layin’ on your back lookin’ up at the sky and wondering.”  He watched carefully as Lexy continued to nervously dig her toes into the sand.  She glanced up at him momentarily.  Their eyes met and quickly dropped simultaneously.

             
“Wondering about what, Jack?”  Lexy’s head was swimming.  She wanted him to take her hand so they could stroll down the beach.  It would be a start.

             
“You know, the age old question, what am I doing here, what’s my purpose, that kinda stuff. Ya wanna take a walk?”

             
“Ok.  That’s some pretty big stuff to think about.”

             
Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the waters edge.

             
“Let’s take off our shoes and walk in the water.”  Lexy reached down with her free hand to loosen her shoes.”

             
“I wouldn’t do that Lexy.  There is a lot of partying in this area and you never know where broken glass might be buried under the sand.  I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”  Her hand in his felt great.  An electric-like bolt surged through his body and it seemed, aimed straight to his heart the moment her hand touched his.  This was a feeling that was totally foreign to him.  Whatever it was, he loved it.  Somehow Jack knew that no other girl would have an effect on him like Lexy did.

             
“Really?  Have you been to some of the parties on the beach?”  Uncontrolled butterflies filled her stomach.  It seemed like she could hardly breathe.  Her ex-boyfriend Tom had never made her feel like this.  If he turned and kissed her right now she thought she might faint from the sheer force of her pent up feelings for him. Or throw herself at him.

             
“Nah.  I’m not really the partying kind.  I have watched a few people get, ah. naked when they were really drunk.”  He turned and smiled, dark eyes staring at her from beneath dusky, long lashes. 

             
Lexy dropped her head a moment, caught off guard by his admission.  His laughter brought her head jerking up. 

             
“What’s so funny?”  Planting her feet apart, she yanked him around toward her.

             
“You are.  I’ve never been with a girl who blushes at the word naked.  It’s a natural thing you know.”  Jack grinned, amused at her confusion.

             
“I am not blushing.  And I don’t mind....you know...hearing about people getting...taking their clothes off.  It’s just not something I would do, you know, on the spur of the moment.  I’ve heard about those kinds of parties.  I almost went to one once.”  Lexy grimaced as she remembered Tom trying to force her to drink at a bash held at a friend’s cottage.  That, among other things had led to their recent break-up.  She wasn’t the wild type the captain of the football team was looking for.  At least not in her eyes.  He just couldn’t seem to let it go though.  He still called her all the time and bugged her at school.  Then Jack had walked into the school and at that moment Lexy knew her heart would never be the same.  And here she was, with the boy of her dreams.

             
Jack pulled her closer.  “I’m just playing with you Lexy.  I knew from the moment I saw you walking down the hall with your friends that you were different from the rest.  I had to meet you.”  His dark head bent closer to her uplifted face.  “Would you mind if I kiss you now?”  His lips were a breadth away from hers.  She closed her eyes in anticipation. 

             
Slowly his lips grazed hers.  Softly his lips pressed against her half opened mouth. A sigh escaped her lips as his mouth explored hers.  Lexy’s eye’s fluttered open as Jack released their first kiss.  His hands were caressing her soft, glimmering hair.  She laid her head against his chest.

             
“Jack.  I didn’t know it could be like this.  Feel like this.”  She sighed again and nuzzled his jacket.

             
“Me either, angel.  Me either.”  Jack held her tightly, never wanting to release her.

             
“I have to get back soon.  Mom is picking me up in half an hour.”  Lexy gazed up at him, infatuated by his cool, calm, yet loving demeanor.

             
His lips brushed the top of her head.  “ I know.  And we wouldn’t want your mom to see you with me, would we?”

             
“I’m going to have to get her used to the idea first, Jack.  You know that you are everything a parent with a daughter is afraid of.  They don’t know that you are just a boy like that who likes a girl like me.  Does that make any sense to you?”  Glancing up at him, Lexy hoped that he would understand it would take time.  Her parents liked a boy like Tom.  If they only knew what the high school hero was really like.  Parents of girls tend to stereotype any boy their daughter goes out with.

             
“Yeah, I get it.  It’s ok, Lexy.  We’ll find a way.  I will find a way to make them like me.  You’ll see.”  He glanced up at the hot sun.  “We better get you back to McDonald’s  before she gets there or it will be over before it begins.”

             
Jack grabbed her hand and they ran toward the bike.  “Be careful.  The seat will be hot.”  The boy scooped up a handful of sand and rubbed the leather good.  He felt the seat.  “Ok, hop on.”  He jumped on in front of Lexy and started the cycle with a roar.                Lexy put her arms around him securely and held on for dear life as the bike leapt to life.  Jack Wyatt held her heart firmly in the palm of his hand now.  Somehow she would make her parents see his goodness.  She hoped they could look past the tough exterior and see the tenderness of the boy she was falling in love with.

             
Jack knew was a goner.  One kiss and that was it.  His fate was sealed.  They had to make her parents see that he was truly good enough for her.
But was he?

Seven

              Jack inspected himself in the full length mirror and decided she wouldn’t be able to resist him.
Right Wyatt
.  Like he had been out with a really decent woman since her.

             
He cut a fine figure in his camel Armani sport jacket, dark t-shirt and pants. With his salary, he could afford a few luxuries.  It allowed him the satisfaction of going unnoticed when he dressed up.  No one was looking for Jack Wyatt looking like a normal human being. 

             
A little dinner, dancing and then, come what may. 
Hey Sexy Lexy, I’m ready for you, I think!
  Running his hands through his dark locks, he glanced at the mantle clock on his way out.  It was 7:45.  Jack Wyatt didn’t noticed the decorations at all.  He had other things on his mind.  Like the woman of his dreams.

    
              Lexy opened the door.  She looked terrific in a simple, black, off the shoulder cocktail dress with her strawberry blond hair laying softly on her bare shoulders.  Jack wanted to back her into the room and take her right then and there.  He gave her his arm instead.

             
He’d try to be more of a gentleman.  The type she was probably used to being with.  His eyes strayed to her copious breasts, which were modestly covered.  The dress couldn’t hide the fact that she was curvaceous, nicely put together.  She had great legs too.  So sexy.  Sexy Lexy.

             
Lexy was so enamored of Jack by now she didn’t even notice the once over.  He was devastatingly handsome in his attire.  Silently she handed him her  coat.

    
              “You are as beautiful as I remember, Lexy.”  He took her coat, draping it over his arm.

    
              “And you are just as handsome, Jack.  I love you just the way you are.”  Lexy was horrified that she let that slip out!

             
“I....I mean I.....I love the way you look!”

    
              “Don’t worry baby, I got ya covered.” 

             
Now what the hell did he mean by that dumb remark?  Damn again!
   Jack rolled his eyes again.  This woman was turning  his brain to pulp. 

             
Dinner.  That would clear his head.  A couple of drinks and he'd be all right again.  He ushered her out the door before either of them could put their foot in their mouth a second time.

              They were having dinner in the hotel restaurant which was as exquisite as Lexy's suite.  A rather majestic Christmas tree held court in the elegant restaurant.  It was decorated entirely in the same gold and silver angels, with thousands of tiny lights interwoven throughout the branches. 

             
Why it was the most breathtaking thing I  have ever seen,
she thought to herself as she studied it.  Lexy could hardly eat.  She was so excited about everything, and every time Jack would lift those chestnut eyes of his and stare into hers, Lexy felt like she’d melt.  She loved the way a few strands of his dark, chocolate colored hair fell haphazardly into his eyes.  She resisted the temptation to reach over and brush it back from his face.   Instead she twisted her napkin in her lap.  Nervously, Lexy began to speak.

             
“I’ve been divorced for a year now.  My two children are teenagers.  Jessie is fourteen and Ryan is eighteen.  You spoke to, uh, Ryan when you called the other night.”

             
“Yeah.  Thea told me you dumped the jer-er-guy.  And I bet your kids keep you very busy, Lexy.”  He kept his gaze cool and aloof.  Two teenagers.  And the boy was seventeen.  She hadn’t wasted any time in that department.  There was definitely much, much more to this lady than he had first perceived.  But then, what should he have expected.  That she’d remain celebrate and waste away waiting for him?  Obviously not.

             
She sighed. Jack loved the way she sighed.  He remembered she’d sighed that way when.....

             
“They are very active.  Ryan plays basketball and soccer.  Jess likes theater and softball.”  She laughed softly, a fond look on her face.  “They are quite a pair.”  Lexy was thinking of Ryan’s dark good looks compared to Jess’s soft blonde hair and blue eyes.  Like hers.  And Ryan’s.  Like.....

             
“You must be very proud of them.  I can see who they take after.”  A sweet, angelic voice echoed in his mind.

             
He briefly thought of his own childhood and quickly ended that thought.  He wanted to ask about her ex-husband, Tom, but didn’t have the nerve.  He couldn’t for the life of him see how any man could let her go.  Now, if he had been her husband....Whoa! Get that thought out of your head, man.  What was he thinking!  Husband.  Not this guy!

     
              Lexy's voice interrupted his reverie.  “What about your family, Jack?  How’s your aunt?”  Her soft contralto voice wafted gently over the dull noise of other voices.                   

             
“Uh, she’s fine.  How’s the wine?”  He certainly didn’t want to talk about his family history. Even though he'd become a successful man, his childhood sometimes made him feel like a loser. 

     
              “Jack.  I didn't mean to intrude on your personal life.”  Lexy looked at him with her smoky indigo eyes that were filled with sympathy for him.  She was very empathetic, and other people’s pain was very apparent to her. 

             
Jack looked away. He couldn’t stand it when anyone looked at him with pity, even though he knew it wasn’t really sympathy she felt.  He knew somehow that she really felt his pain.  For a moment he felt a twinge of fear at the thought of Lexy Kane being able to read him so well.  He swept those feelings aside, regaining his macho composure.